Orbit

Two days after its launch from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, the unpiloted U.S. SpaceX Dragon cargo craft arrived at the International Space Station Jan. 12 with more than two tons of supplies and science experiments for the Expedition 42 crew. The station crew grappled the Dragon supply ship with the station’s robotic arm and ground controllers at Mission Control, Houston maneuvered Dragon to the Earth-facing port of the station’s Harmony module, where it was installed and bolted into place for a month-long stay.

Moon

The Morpheus/ALHAT team is at the Kennedy Space Center Shuttle Landing Facility to conduct Free Flight 15, the first free flight since May 28, the 6th with the ALHAT (Autonomous Landing and Hazard Avoidance Technology) sensor suite onboard, and a third attempt at completing a historic closed-loop ALHAT flight.

Planetary

Orbit

After four successful missions to the International Space Station, including three official resupply missions for NASA, SpaceX launches its fourth official Commercial Resupply (CRS) mission to the orbiting lab. The SpaceX CRS-4 mission launched Sunday, September 21 from Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.

The unmanned Dragon capsule is delivering more than 5,000 pounds of space station supplies for NASA. A 3-D printer developed by Made in Space, a company located in Silicon Valley, is among the cargo. Built to withstand the stresses of launch, and meets NASA’s strict safety standards, it’s a technology demonstrator. A bigger and better model to follow next year, and NASA envisions astronauts one day cranking out spare parts as needed.

Dragon is due to arrive at the station on Monday, September 22 for an expected four-week visit. Dragon is scheduled to return to Earth in mid-October for a parachute-assisted splashdown off the coast of southern California. Dragon is the only operational spacecraft capable of returning a significant amount of supplies back to Earth, including experiments.

Planetary

From the Jet Propulsion Laboratory comes this month’s preview of the nighttime sky. View the red star Antares near the red planet Mars, plus the Zodiacal Light that points towards Jupiter in the morning sky.

Planetary

Engineers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, are wrapping up acoustic testing on a 5-percent scale model of NASA’s Space Launch System. The Aug. 28 test, the 34th in the series, will help NASA engineers understand how loud the SLS vehicle will be during liftoff. Data from the test series will be used to design the water sound suppression system that reduces liftoff vibrations on the vehicle. SLS will be the most powerful rocket ever built for deep space missions, including to an asteroid and ultimately to Mars.

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